Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Dana Mentink (novels to improve english txt) 📗

worry was worming its way through her nerves. She leaned out the window. “Come here right now, Admiral,” she hollered in her best “I mean business” voice.

The dog did not come.

“What is he so interested in out there?” she whispered. Would the squirrels be active at night? Dread began to tingle deep in her belly.

“Stay here,” Beckett said to Laney. “Levi, will you stay too?”

Levi nodded. Laney noted the rifle secured to his saddle and swallowed hard.

“I’m going with you, Beckett,” Willow said, “so let’s not waste any more time.” She pulled a revolver from her saddlebag and tucked it into her pocket.

Willow had been the victim of violence, so she never traveled too far without protection. But guns? Surely this was just a naughty misbehaving dog, wasn’t it? The thought rang false.

Willow followed Beckett on horseback until the branches made the way impassable. She dismounted and looped the reins over a tree branch.

Laney felt the night suddenly grow cold as the two vanished into the darkness.

* * *

Beckett homed in on the sound of Admiral’s whining. It grew louder as they approached a small clearing.

“Beck,” Willow said. She flashed her light on the ground, illuminating a smashed swatch of grass. “It looks like something was dragged here.” Her voice was a whisper, but it sounded in his gut like a warning Klaxon. A moment like this had changed his life.

He swallowed down the memory of finding Pauline not very far from their current location, her lifeless hands flung up as if to ward off her death.

Admiral’s whine was shrill and sharp, close.

“Come here, boy.”

This time, the dog did as requested, hobbling out of the shadows over to Beckett, pawing at his knee. When he bent to hoist him up, Admiral turned and darted to a low-lying set of pine branches.

“Beck…” Willow screamed.

From under the branches protruded a set of legs, a woman’s jean-covered legs, twisted at an unnatural angle. A tiny glimpse of braid shone in the flashlight gleam, Rita’s braid. They ran, Beckett yanking up the branches. Willow bent to press her fingers to the exposed wrist.

Minutes turned into lifetimes as he waited.

“She’s dead,” Willow said. At the same time, their gazes traveled to an object close to Rita’s outstretched hand.

A cap, a Furnace Falls Fire Department baseball cap, stained and battered.

His cap.

A second scream severed the night like a blade. He jerked around to see Laney standing with her hand to her mouth, Levi right behind her. She looked from the dead woman to Beckett. Slowly her gaze came to rest on the baseball cap.

“Please tell me this isn’t happening again.” Her eyes were huge, pleading, desperate.

He could only stare at her, wishing with all his power that he had any other answer to give her.

* * *

She was sitting in the truck with Admiral on her lap when Jude and Officer Norris arrived. Though she wore her trusty sweater, she was shivering. Jude lifted a hand to her, his face grim as granite. More officers arrived, a team from the coroner’s office. The nightmare continued. After Jude talked to Willow and Levi, Levi rode his mare away, leading Willow’s. Willow climbed into the driver’s side of the truck and reached over to squeeze Laney’s shoulder.

“You know he didn’t do this. They won’t be able to find any proof.”

Except Beckett’s hat at the murder scene?

Jude approached after a while and she listened to him through the open window.

“Laney, was Beckett on the property all night?”

“I…” She shook her head. “He went out for a while. I don’t know where. But he did not kill Rita. Why would he? She was going to give us information to clear him from Pauline’s death, once and for all.” She broke off and tried to catch her breath.

He laid his hand on hers where she gripped the door frame. “We’ll get it straightened out. I’m going to take Beckett to the station to get a statement and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

“I’m coming.”

“Laney…” Beckett was still six feet away, no doubt at Jude’s request. “Go home. I don’t want you involved in this.”

Go back home and walk away from whatever had been building between them?

Press in and embroil herself and her baby in another horror?

Did she have the strength to face it? To draw close and have him push her away again? Did she even love him still or was it the stubborn ties of the past? She drew in a breath and made her decision, pushing the door open so suddenly Jude had to sidestep.

“Laney…” Jude started, but she ignored him.

Beckett’s face was grooved with the deepest despair and disbelief. Pain radiated off him in palpable waves. She marched to him and tipped her chin up, locking eyes with his.

“I am still your wife, technically. I will not walk away from you.” She caught the sparkle of moisture in his eyes and she knew hers were damp too.

He opened his mouth to speak, his hands reaching for her, but Jude had caught up and gently moved her back. “If you want to come to the station, I won’t stop you, but it will be a long night.”

She got back into the truck.

Willow was already in the driver’s seat. “I’ll take you. We can drop Admiral off on the way.”

Willow didn’t try to make conversation as they drove to the station. What was there to say? They’d heard more commotion before they’d left the woods, and she knew they’d found Rita’s car in a tangle of shrubbery. The police would do a thorough examination, check it for fingerprints and fibers and such. She tried to think calmly, as they settled into the uncomfortable chairs in the police station lobby. Beckett’s hat at the scene wasn’t enough to lead to his arrest, was it?

She was filled with frenetic energy and wanted to pace, but the space was small and Willow was already prowling around the dingy spot, making calls to Levi, Aunt Kitty, Herm.

Laney should be thinking about those details